Chelsea Clinton’s leap into a prestigious job as a news correspondent on NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams” has not come without a price. She’s reportedly getting icy stares from veteran female correspondents.
News veterans Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, Kate Snow and Meredith Vieira, are reportedly griping behind her back, according to the National Enquirer.
Williams put together an all-star cast for his high-profile job that includes former CBS newsman Harry Smith, NBC sports anchor Bob Costas and broadcast dean Ted Koppel.
Clinton, on the other hand, has no previous broadcast experience, but her allure was obvious as the daughter of former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But Clinton is far from the only child of privilege to land a high profile media job.
She follows such children of privilege as Kennedy clan offspring Maria Shriver and NBC correspondent Josh Mankiewicz, the son of long-time Democratic political operative Frank Mankiewicz.
In August 2009, NBC hired Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of former President George Bush as a new correspondent for the “Today Show.”
All vaulted into the coveted ranks of national news operations with little or no experience.
The job isn’t rocket science. Shriver and Mankiewicz are adequate in front of a camera today, so Clinton will eventually get it.
But the move still rankles.
Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik called her hiring a “journalistically bankrupt decision.”
“There’s the feeling that she didn’t pay her dues,” a source told The Enquirer.
“In contrast, the show’s other ‘special correspondent’ is Ted Koppel, who has decades of news experience!”
Despite her lack of experience, Chelsea is reportedly getting star treatment.
“Top network brass are giving Chelsea star treatment,” the insider divulged. “One woman groused, ‘If her last name wasn’t Clinton, she’d be Chelsea who?
“There are college interns here who have more TV experience than she does, but they’ll have to go out to a place like Cleveland for years before they’d even be considered for a network job in New York,” one grouser said.
“There’s the feeling that Chelsea is simply using the job to ‘brand’ herself for the future – whether she follows her parents into politics or something else.”
